The present invention relates to a plate sectioning saw, and in particular, to a plate sectioning saw which has a machine support table with a plurality of table surface parts, a transfer table adjacent to the machine support table and a discharge aperture extending between one of the table surface parts and the transfer tables, parallel to the saw aperture. The present invention also relates to a plate sectioning saw which includes a closing flap for closing the discharge aperture, and an orienting device for aligning a stacked set of workpiece plates prior to sectioning. Such a plate sectioning saw is disclosed in Brochure No. F 124/5.87/10, titled "FIXOMAT SQUARING EQUIPMENT", produced by Holzma-Machinenbau GmbH.
In such a plate sectioning saw as described above, the closing flap is activated in accordance with a program operational cycle, whereby the closing flap opens and closes alternately permitting and denying access to a discharge opening or discharge shaft. If workpiece plates, such as, for example, chipboard plates, are sectioned, then each chipboard plate is first trimmed in order to produce a reference edge. When the separating cut is made to produce the reference edge, the closing flap is swung down to its open position, and the discharge opening is thereby opened in order to save the scrap material which results from the cut performed to make the reference edge. As the workpiece plate is moved forward for the next sectioning cut, the scrap material is driven forward into the discharge aperture. Thereafter, the closing flap is directed back to its closed position, to enable the resulting subsequent plate part sections, which are cut away from the workpiece plate, to be moved over the closing flap to a successive processing station.
If several workpiece plates are to be sectioned on such a plate sectioning saw at the same time, the sectioning cut is usually accomplished by stacking the workpiece plates on top of one another into a set of workpiece plates. Before the first cutting of the stack, these plates are precisely aligned against a pushing unit of the feeding device. The pushing unit then feeds the stack of workpiece plates along a forward feed direction through the sectioning saw. In known prior art devices, the alignment of the stack of plates was accomplished through the use of special orienting devices which were placed on the body of the plate sectioning saw. The special orienting device pressed the set of plates, during the forward motion of the pushing device, against stop elements, which uniformly aligned the individual workpiece plates with respect to one another. In this way, the individual plates were aligned initially along their forward edges, with respect to the forward feed direction.
In order to align the workpiece plates snugly at their forward edges, the plate sectioning saw therefore had to be equipped with additional aligning devices, the manufacture and assembly of which correspondingly entailed additional costs.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a plate sectioning saw with a simplified construction, and method of operation, so that the need for special orienting devices is substantially reduced.
This and other objects of the invention will become apparent in light of the present specification, drawings and claims.